SIMON TAM

'Simon Tam' is a fictional doctor, played by Sean Maher, who originally appeared in Joss Whedon’s short-lived cult-hit television series ''Firefly''. He appears in all episodes, and more recently has appeared in the comics '' and the feature film ''Serenity''.

Contents

History

Early life

Trapped River

Breakout

Onboard ''Serenity''

Controversy

Relationships

Notes and references

History

Early life

Simon was born in late November, c. 2490 to Gabriel and Regan Tam, and was born and raised on Osiris, a Core World planet with major Alliance ties. In the original script for the episode "Bushwhacked" it is revealed that Simon supported Unification, the issue that sparked the eponymous War of Unification.
Since he was young, Simon's family has had hopes for him to have a future in medicine. In "Safe," his father bargains that he can have a dedicated source box for access to the Cortex (similar to the Internet) in exchange for becoming a "brilliant doctor." Simon accepts this without question, as if he's already been told—or "encouraged"—that he will become a doctor when he's older. Simon is very gifted, and he was accepted to the best Medical Academy, or "MedAcad," on Osiris. Simon graduated in the top 3% of his class, and promptly moved onto a medical internship, which he completed in a mere eight months (as opposed to a year), and is licensed to practice medicine.
Simon later tells Kaylee Frye, engineer of Serenity, that after he and his fellow doctors officially became surgeons, they imbibed quite a large amount of sake, and ended up naked on a statue of Hippocrates. There are rumors that Simon began singing the National Anthem, and he either talked or paid his way out of the Alliance telling his father. Simon admits that he is quite "fuzzy on details" regarding this story.
From there, he became a resident trauma surgeon on one of the major hospitals in Capital City, Osiris.

Trapped River

Around this time, the Tam family was made aware of an elite Alliance-sponsored school called ''The Academy'' that their daughter River was keen to attend. Simon began receiving notes from River a few months into her schooling, littered with out of character spelling errors and mentions of parties and families that did not exist. Eventually, Simon realized that River was writing in code, asking him to rescue her, though when he informed his parents of this, they dismissed it as paranoia (as seen in "Safe").
Due to Simon's love for River he began a quest to find and rescue her from the Academy. He went to great lengths; entering "Illegal Blackout Zones. His subsequent arrest brought much shame to his father and family.

Breakout

After learning about River's abuse at the Academy, he is unable to help her for two more years. However, Simon is eventually contacted by a group of men from an underground movement. They explain to him that the Alliance has been "playing with her brain." If funded, the men agreed to sneak River out via cryogenics. River would then be taken to Persephone, which is a planet slightly outside the Core, where Simon could take her wherever he wished.
Simon spends a large amount of money funding the men. As part of the plan, he manages to break into the Academy disguised as a uniformed official of the Alliance government and asks questions of Dr. Mathias about River’s treatment. Simon activates a hidden stun grenade and releases River. They then run to the window of an elevator shaft and break through, while a ship overhead releases a raft they then use to ride up to safety. This was all caught on the security cameras of the Academy (as seen in ''Serenity''). From there, they head for Persephone.
When the Alliance learns of River's rescue, they promptly freeze all of Simon's monetary accounts, leaving him with nothing but his medkit, and put out a warrant for the arrest of both Simon and River, labelling them as fugitives (as mentioned in "Safe" and "Ariel'").

Onboard ''Serenity''

After landing on Persephone Simon looks for a ship to take him and a cryogenically stabilized River off-planet. He chooses ''Serenity'', which has just arrived at the Eavesdown Docks. He comes aboard dressed to the nines, and less than talkative about his mysterious cargo. The ship's mechanic, Kaylee Frye, is immediately infatuated with Simon upon meeting him and flirts unabashedly with him when he is invited to have dinner with the crew - leading to a moment of embarrassment for both when Jayne Cobb makes an lewd and decidedly unkind remark about Kaylee's eager interest in Simon.
Later, Wash realizes a message has been sent to the Alliance, and Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds believes that it is Simon—a possible undercover agent—who has sent it. In the ensuing conflict, they realize that Simon is not an Alliance agent, but instead another passenger is—Lawrence Dobson. Dobson, in an attempt to gain control of the ship and capture the "fugitives" on board, shoots Kaylee Frye in the stomach. As Simon is the only doctor on board, he alone has the means to save her, and uses this fact to make sure Mal Reynolds does not hand Simon and River over to the Alliance. Mal agrees only out of concern for Kaylee and resents most heavily anyone exerting power over him aboard his own ship. After Simon has done all he can for Kaylee, Mal decides to find out what Simon had in his crate. Mal opens it up, finding Simon's sister, River Tam. Because of the need of Simon and River to stay on the move, Mal Reynolds offers Simon a post as medic on ''Serenity'', and Simon accepts.
Simon soon settles into life on the ship, spending time with River, in attempts to figure out what happened to her at the Academy. The Tams remain below Alliance radar, despite some close calls—notably, the boarding of the ship in "Bushwhacked," and being arrested in "Ariel."
From the beginning, Simon and Mal experience a lot of tension. This is due mainly to their similarity—both would do anything to protect their family. To Mal, his crew is his family and he tolerates and accepts Simon and River as long as they do not threaten the well-being of his ship or crew. Simon is likewise devoted to River’s safety. These two goals are not always seen as the same despite Simon being the ship’s medic and thus a member of the crew.
There is also some tension with Jayne Cobb who is crude and uneducated and does not see any wisdom in keeping the Tams aboard. After River attacks him with a knife during one of her psychotic outbursts, Jayne attempts to turn them in and collect the reward, although the plan backfires when he is double crossed by his Alliance contact ("Ariel"). This deception is eventually discovered in “Trash”, but Simon tells Jayne that he won't take advantage of his position as medic to take revenge, because they are on the same crew. Jayne is also prone to making fun of Kaylee in front of Simon because of her attraction to Simon, thus embarrassing both.
Simon remains so intent on making sure River is not causing trouble that he doesn't concentrate on relations with the rest of the crew. When Simon meets up with Inara and Kaylee while they are shopping on Jiangyin, he manages to insult the only thing important in Kaylee's life by referring to ''Serenity'' as 垃圾 ''lè sè'' (pronounced "luh-suh"), or basically, "garbage."
After Kaylee coldly chastises him—and Inara throws him an equally cold glare to make him feel ashamed of himself—Simon then loses track of River on Jiangyin, and while he finds her happily dancing with townspeople, he soon gets captured by hill-folk who are in desperate need of a doctor. This situation deteriorates and River is soon accused of witchcraft. Before both can be burned at the stake Mal and Zoe successfully locate them and come to the rescue. After they have safely returned to the ship, Simon asks Mal why he came back for them. Mal simply responds:
:"You're on my crew. Why're we still talkin' about this?"
From that point on, Simon is clearly more a part of the crew. In "Jaynestown," he pretends to be a high-class buyer of ceramic mud as a cover for a job. While on this job, he and Kaylee have their first moment where it's realized that Simon may have more feelings for Kaylee than originally thought. When they sit together in the pub in Canton (the town where the job is), Simon and Kaylee get rather drunk, and when they get to talking, they reveal their true colors:
:'Kaylee:' You are pretty funny.

:'Simon:' And you're pretty... pretty.

:'Kaylee:' What did you just say?

:'Simon:' I just said that you're pretty. Even when you're covered in... engine grease, you're... No, especially when you're covered in engine grease.
However, when they are awakened the next morning by Mal, Simon denies that anything could have ever happened between him acknowledging Mal's older brother relationship with Kaylee. However, he does so in a manner that understandably angers Kaylee. They resolve this somewhat at the end of the episode—after he is beaten up, Simon explains that his polite manner is his way of showing respect and affection. He states that he curses only when it's appropriate.
Simon appears prominently in "Ariel," where the crew finds themselves on Ariel, a Core Planet swarming with Alliance. Mal forbids the crew to leave, but Simon suggests a job for them that involves stealing medicine from St. Lucy's, a major hospital on Ariel, and selling them on the black market for profit.
Simon's motive is to access the sophisticated neural scanners located at St. Lucy's, as he has reached a wall in his attempts to find out what the Academy scientists did to River. They eventually sneak in (through an elaborate plan, see "Ariel") and Simon is able to gain access to the 3D neuro-imager to look at River's brain, and realizes her amygdala has been "stripped," and she feels ''all'' emotion and cannot filter or push aside any emotion. While in the hospital River predicts that a doctor will make a mistake and kill a patient. Simon intervenes and saves the man, demonstrating his ability and how natural being a trauma surgeon is to him.
By "Objects in Space," the final episode, Simon has begun to loosen up much more, especially around Kaylee, and tells her about when he made surgeon and got drunk and sang on top of the statue of Hippocrates. Due to River's quasi-psychic powers, she "hears" Simon say "I'd be there right now" and later he says something similar to Kaylee, extending it to "I'd be there now if she hadn't—if they'd have just left her alone." This reveals that as deeply as Simon cares for his sister and as much as he tries to make her well-being his only concern, he does miss his old life.
In the film ''Serenity'', Simon has finally become well-adjusted to the crew—to the point where he even stands up to Mal and punches him when Mal puts River in danger during a heist. Mal had sucker punched Simon twice in the pilot ''Serenity'', so this is a step towards evening things out. Near the end of the film, Simon admits to Kaylee that he would have liked to have had a romantic relationship with her just as they prepare for an apparently hopeless battle with Reavers. It is later implied that Simon and Kaylee have finally become a sexually-active couple.

Controversy

There is a perceived discrepancy regarding Simon's role in the rescue of River, as the series and film offer slightly conflicting views on how exactly River is released from the Academy. The explanation given in the series (more specifically, in the pilot episode "Serenity") is that Simon funded the group that smuggled River out and picked her up on Persephone suspended in cryo in a large crate, with no mention made of his direct participation:
:'Zoe:' “How’d you do it?”
:'Simon:' “Money. And luck. For two years I couldn’t get near her. Then I was contacted by some men, some underground movement. They said that she was in danger, that the government was playing with her brain. If I funded them they could sneak her out in cryo, get her to Persephone, and from there I could take her wherever.”
The film, on the other hand, shows Simon impersonating an Alliance official and being directly involved in rescuing a fully animate River from the Academy. Joss Whedon has commented on this, saying that for the film he had to have Simon rescue River, for plot reasons, and saying that Simon was lying when he first told the crew about rescuing River and that he plans on addressing the issue at some point.^[1]

Relationships

★ 'River': Very close. Frequently refers to her as 妹妹 "mei mei", which means "little sister". He has given up his career in order to save her and now protects her closely.

★ 'Mal': Frequently in conflict when Simon tries to protect River after she has done something to anger Mal; however, in many ways he is actually rather close to Mal, who was actually prepared to come back for him in a situation where his own father would have left him.

★ 'Kaylee': Unresolved sexual tension between them is one of the character arcs of the series, their relationship is prevented from progressing due to Simon's tendency to utter unintentionally irreverent comments at her expense, or because of his responsibility to River. The tension eventually culminates in an apparent sexual relationship within the movie, ''Serenity''.

★ 'Inara': "Fraternal" relationship allied against what they both perceive to be the crudity of the rest of the crew (particularly Jayne and Mal), in addition to having to some extent the same "mother-child" relationship with Inara that much of the rest of the crew shares.

★ 'Jayne': In constant personal conflict, as Simon's 'civilized' upbringing is abraded by Jayne's more 'frontier' personality. Simon held a deep respect for Jayne following the events of "Ariel", but his respect for Jayne disappeared after River learned of Jayne's betrayal on Ariel through her psychic abilities.

★ 'Shepherd Book': Simon shares a similar relationship with Book as does the rest of the crew (flock to shepherd), with the twist that Book typically does not engage in immoral behavior now, though there are hints that he might have in the past; whereas the rest of the crew are currently criminals (or prostitutes in Inara's case)—Simon is largely 'pure' in Book's eyes.

Notes and references

1. http://www.serenitymovie.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=766